


Seven Year Itch

by imaginary_golux



Series: Fractured Fairy Tales [8]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Bearskin, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy Ending, M/M, which is apparently so obscure there's not a tag for it yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 15:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7849819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe is a soldier honorably discharged from the army. Rey is an exceedingly cranky fairy. Finn is the youngest of three sons. This being a fairy tale, there's a happily-ever-after in there somewhere...</p>
<p>Beta by my Best Beloved, the ever-patient and wonderful Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seven Year Itch

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there was a soldier who was given his honorable discharge when the war was over; but the war had gone on so long that he had no home to return to, and there was no one in the city who would offer him work, and so he wandered away with no companion but his faithful dog. And after a few days, when he was very nearly out of food, he found himself lost in the middle of a great forest, and he sat down under a tree and gave his dog the last of their meat and said to her, “It may be that I shall die here, but at least it is a beautiful place to die, not like the battlefields where I earned my scars.” And he fell asleep under the tree.

Now it happened that that tree was the habitual dwelling of a certain woodland spirit, who had for many days been plagued by men from a nearby village, who wished to win her heart and hand but were so importunate and unpleasant that instead their wooing merely enraged her. So when she returned to her tree that evening and found the soldier there, she thought that he was one of the townsfolk who had been plaguing her, and in her wrath she cried out, “Cursed be and cast out, you trespasser! For seven years I curse you: that you shall sleep no two nights together beneath the same roof, that you shall neither bathe nor shave nor trim your nails, and that all who see you shall find you hideous!”

This woke the soldier, who went to his knees before the woodland spirit and said pleadingly, “Most gracious lady, I beg your forgiveness; I did not know this was your land, and did not mean to trespass.” Now, most spirits can tell when someone is telling the truth, and the woodland spirit saw that the soldier spoke honestly, and regretted her harsh words.

“I cannot remove the curse,” she said, “for once laid they cannot be taken away, only broken or survived. But I can give you these,” and she summoned to him a bearskin cloak and a fat purse. “While you wear the cloak you cannot be harmed by fire, flood, wood or weapon; and the purse shall never be empty. Take them with you, and use them well; and after seven years return them to me.”

The soldier thanked her, for he was a very polite man, and took the cloak and the purse and went out into the world. At first the curse was very little trouble to him, for one may go a few days without bathing and several weeks without shaving or trimming one’s nails before one becomes quite hideous, but after a while people began to recoil from him whenever he appeared, and it was only by dint of the magical purse that he was able to feed himself, and even with its bottomless funds he could not buy a room for himself beyond a barn or a stable’s stall. But he was a kind man, and a good one, and so in every town he came to, he found those who had need of food or shelter or clothing, the poor and the old and the ailing, and he bought for them whatever they needed, and asked no thanks for it. So the rumor began to spread of a man dressed in a bearskin cloak, as filthy and unshaven as a bear himself, who was as kind as he was hideous; and the children of the towns called him Bearskin and begged at his heels.

So he and his dog wandered for many days; but every year the soldier returned to the woodland spirit’s tree, and told her all that had come to pass that year, and the woodland spirit grew fond of the man she had cursed, and regretted her hasty words and her cruelty.

Now it came to pass sometime in the fourth year of the soldier’s wanderings that he came upon a woman being set upon by bandits, and though she was giving a good account of herself there were far too many of them for any one warrior; and so the soldier set himself at her side and strove against the bandits with her, and his dog along with him, and in a little while they had set all the bandits to flight.

“I thank you, stranger,” the woman said, “for without your aid I would have been slain. I have little enough to repay you for your kindness, but come to my home with me. I have three sons, all beautiful and dutiful, and you may choose among them which you wish to wed, for I have nothing else to pay my debt to you.”

“I will come,” the soldier said, “but I will not wed an unwilling husband; if one of them likes of me, well and good, but I will make no claim if they find me repulsive.” So he went with the woman to her house, and there they were met by the woman’s sons, and she told them what had befallen and asked them, each and all, if they would marry the soldier for the sake of the service he had done her.

Now the eldest son was as fair as snow, with hair like rubies, and he looked at the soldier and said, “Mother, I love and honor you, but I cannot marry so foul a creature as this.” And the soldier nodded.

The second son was as tall as the doorway, with dark eyes and dark hair like stormclouds, and he looked at the soldier and said, “Mother, I have always done my duty by you, but I cannot marry so hideous a creature as this.” And the soldier nodded.

The third son was as dark as the night sky, and his eyes shone like stars, and he looked at the soldier and said, “Stranger, I do not know you, but you are brave and your dog loves you, and I have heard tell of a man dressed as you are who is as kind as a summer day is long; if you will have me, I will marry you.”

Then the soldier took a ring from his finger, which was his last remembrance of his dead mother, and broke it in two, and gave half to the youngest son. “I cannot marry you now,” he said, “for no man deserves a husband as repulsive as I am; but in three years I will return, and if you will yet have me, then I will marry you.”

So the youngest son promised, and hung the broken ring on a chain about his neck that he might not mislay it, and the soldier went on his way. For three more years he wandered, and always as he came to a new town he would commission some beautiful thing to be made, and have it sent to the youngest son of the woman he had saved, saying, “Tell him it is from Bearskin, and he may do as he pleases with it, for it pleased me to give it;” and with the presents he sent letters, when he could find someone to write them - for his long nails kept him from such occupation - telling the youngest son stories of his travels, and of distant lands that he had seen during the war.

Now the woman’s elder sons gave their younger brother a great deal of trouble and taunting about his betrothed, saying, “He is sending you beautiful things to buy your affection, because he knows he is too hideous to love; and you have shackled yourself to such a creature as that, who thinks you are little better than a common harlot to be bought with gold and gems.”

But the youngest son ignored them as best he could, and took pleasure in the beautiful things the soldier sent him, saying, “He chooses very beautiful things which please me greatly, out of his kindness; and if he is foul in appearance, he is kind, which is worth more than beauty.”

So the seven years were past at last, and the soldier went to the woodland spirit to return the bearskin cloak and the purse. The woodland spirit took the cloak, but she said to him, “For your kindness and your patience, and for the curse I put upon you which was not yours to bear, you may keep the purse.” And she brought him to a certain woodland pool that she knew of, and told him to bathe; and when he had done so, she trimmed his hair and his beard and his nails, until he was as beautiful a man as you have ever seen, for such he had been before the curse was placed upon him. And she gave him a suit of clothes as fine as any prince’s, and sent him out into the world with her blessing.

So the soldier went at once to the woman’s house, and she did not recognize him without his bearskin and with his hair and nails trimmed. “I have heard,” he said to her, “that you have three sons of surpassing beauty and faithfulness, and I am looking for a husband.”

“Be welcome, then,” the woman said, and brought him in, and laid dinner before him; and when the elder sons saw that there was a man of immense beauty, as wealthy as a prince, come to call upon them, they dressed themselves in all their finery and presented themselves as alluringly as they could. But the youngest son wore a jacket which Bearskin had sent to him, and did not speak to the soldier save for common courtesy. So the soldier asked him, “You are as lovely as your brothers; do you not want me for your own?”

“Sir,” said the youngest son, “I would be honored, were it possible; but I am promised to another,” and he drew the broken ring on its chain out from under his shirt. Then his brothers taunted him, for the youngest son was promised to Bearskin while the elders could look forward to marrying so fine a man as the soldier.

“Tell me,” said the soldier, “what sort of man has won your hand.”

“In truth, he is kind and generous, brave and good-humored,” the youngest son replied, “but I know him only a little, for he does not visit me, only sends me gifts and letters; but if I may judge by those, he is as good a man as any, and better than most.”

“Truly, he has chosen well,” the soldier said, smiling, and drew his half of the broken ring out of the pocket where he had kept it. “For you are as kind and gentle and faithful as the dawn, to have seen something worth having in so foul a creature as I was; but my curse is ended, and I am returned to myself again. Will you have me as I am?”

“Gladly!” cried the youngest son, and the soldier took his betrothed into his arms and kissed him full sweetly, and they were both very joyful.

But the elder sons were wroth, and spoke foul words against them both, that the soldier was a sorcerer and the youngest son no better than he ought to be; and so when they had been wed, the soldier said to his husband, “Come, and we will find better company.”

So they went away from that place together, and the soldier brought his husband to the forest where the woodland spirit dwelt, and made them known to each other, and begged of the spirit that they might remain in her forest for all their days, for that the outside world was full of those who judged entirely on appearances, and were jealous of another’s good fortune; and the woodland spirit, who had grown quite fond of the soldier during the seven years of his curse, made them welcome in her domain.

And in time it came to pass that the woodland spirit and the soldier and the youngest son became such fast friends that you could not have told, watching them, which was married to the other, for they loved each other each and all, and were joyful together; and for all I know, they are living there still, in peace and love and happiness, and this is the end of my tale.

**Author's Note:**

> I am imaginarygolux over on tumblr - do drop by and say hi!


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